Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of processing substrate which deposits a thin film on a substrate.
Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, in order to manufacture a solar cell, a semiconductor device and a flat panel display device, it is necessary to form a predetermined thin film layer, a thin film circuit pattern or an optical pattern on a surface of a substrate. To this end, a semiconductor manufacturing process may be carried out, for example, a thin film deposition process of depositing a thin film of a predetermined material on a substrate, a photo process of selectively exposing the thin film by the use of photosensitive material, and an etching process of forming a pattern by selectively removing an exposed portion of the thin film.
The semiconductor manufacturing process is performed inside a substrate processing apparatus designed to be suitable for optimal circumstances. Recently, a substrate processing apparatus using plasma is generally used to carry out a deposition or etching process.
This semiconductor manufacturing process using plasma may be a PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) apparatus for forming a thin film, and a plasma etching apparatus for etching and patterning the thin film.
FIG. 1 illustrates a substrate processing apparatus according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the substrate processing apparatus according to the related art may include a chamber 10, a plasma electrode 20, a susceptor 30, and a gas distributing means 40.
The chamber 10 provides a process space for substrate processing. In this case, a predetermined portion of a bottom surface of the chamber 10 is communicated with an exhaust pipe 12 for discharging gas from the process space.
The plasma electrode 20 is provided on the chamber 10 so as to seal the process space.
One side of the plasma electrode 20 is electrically connected with a RF (Radio Frequency) power source 24 through a matching member 22. The RF power source 24 generates RF power, and supplies the generated RF power to the plasma electrode 20.
Also, a central portion of the plasma electrode 20 is communicated with a gas supply pipe 26 of supplying process gas for the substrate processing.
The matching member 22 is connected between the plasma electrode 20 and the RF power source 24, to thereby match load impedance and source impedance of the RF power supplied from the RF power source 24 to the plasma electrode 20.
The susceptor 30 is provided inside the chamber 10, and the susceptor 30 supports a plurality of substrates (W) loaded from the external. The susceptor 30 functions as an opposite electrode (or ground electrode) in opposite to the plasma electrode 20.
The gas distributing means 40 is provided below the plasma electrode 20, wherein the gas distributing means 40 is provided to confront the susceptor 30. In this case, a gas diffusion space 42 is formed between the gas distributing means 40 and the plasma electrode 20. Inside the gas diffusion space 42, the process gas supplied from the gas supply pipe 26 penetrating through the plasma electrode 20 is diffused. The gas distributing means 40 uniformly distributes the process gas to the entire area of the process space through a plurality of gas distributing holes 14 being communicated with the gas diffusion space 42.
In case of the substrate processing apparatus according to the related art, after the substrate (W) is loaded onto the susceptor 30, the predetermined process gas is distributed to the process space of the chamber 10, and the RF power is supplied to the plasma electrode 20 so as to form the plasma, to thereby deposit a predetermined thin film on the substrate (W).
However, the substrate processing apparatus according to the related art may have the following problems.
First, there exist foreign matters in the surface and the inside of the thin film deposited on the substrate (W) by the thin film deposition process, thereby deteriorating the quality of thin film.
Also, the substrate (W) provided with the thin film deposited thereon has to be transferred to an additional surface-treatment chamber so as to carry out a surface treatment (or removing process of foreign matters) process for improving the quality of thin film, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost.